The Cleveland Guardians have faced dire situations before, especially during the regular season. This year, they had to overcome a six-game deficit to win the AL Central, one season after overcoming a historic 15.5-game gap to do so.
But they have not responded in the same way in the postseason. The Guardians have lost 13 of their past 14 games when facing playoff elimination, including last year when they were defeated by the Detroit Tigers in the AL Wild Card Round.
Despite facing that daunting history, Steven Kwan said there’s “no panic button” for the Guardians heading into Game 3 of the ALDS against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
“We’ve had a ton of adversity throughout this year. We had a ton of adversity last year as well, so I think it’s just there’s no panic button. We’re not trying to do too much. We just have to do it with a ton of focus, and we’re just gonna have a good day tomorrow,” Kwan said.
After losing Games 1 and 2 to Chicago at Progressive Field, Cleveland does have some positive recent history it can draw from. In 2024, the Guardians trailed the Tigers in the ALDS but rallied to take the series with two straight victories, including a 7-3 win in Game 5. That ended an MLB-record 11-game losing streak in elimination games, which spanned from Game 7 of the 2016 World Series against the Chicago Cubs through Game 5 of the 2022 ALDS against the New York Yankees.
Teams that have lost the first two games of a best-of-5 series have been eliminated 89 percent of the time (83 out of 93), but Cleveland knows what it’s like to be on the other side. The last time a team overcame that 2-0 hole was in 2017, when the Yankees rallied with three straight wins to defeat it in the 2017 ALDS.
The Guardians also wound up losing the 2024 ALCS to the Yankees in Game 5 before being knocked out by the Tigers last year after winning the division ahead of them. Cleveland is facing the same scenario this year after finishing one game ahead of the White Sox in the AL Central.
Chicago is facing some dubious history of its own. The White Sox have not clinched a playoff series at home in 120 years, since they defeated the Chicago Cubs to win the 1906 World Series.
With Games 3 and 4 at Rate Field, the Guardians have to hope that trend continues to force Game 5 back in Cleveland on Saturday.
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